Packing Lists…

Some have you may have seen Lana’s post on social media, showing the prints of the kid’s packing lists…

…and for those of you who have asked, the font I used is called “Sundowners.” 😉

The making of lists is important to our method of exit. Each year– each long trip– we’ve opened up the past lists and revised. Some of what’s there seems unnecessary… right up until you break the shower curtain rod in the flat you’re staying in. That’s why we always pack zip ties. Just sayin’.

All that being said, the lists have now been checked off (to a greater or lesser extent; Finley refuses to physically (inkily?) check off the little spot on the sheet). We are waiting for the size ginormous van to come and take us and our six suitcases and six carry-ons to the airport. Lana has booked transportation arrangements in Barcelona (did I mention we’re going to Spain for the first part of the trip this year?); I’m hoping that her specific messages about how much equipment /  how many people we’re ACTUALLY traveling with have been received & understood by our would-be Transporters.

There are definitely some moments when packing our family for a month-long trip seems more like the machinations of a military campaign… or a crackpot version of faux English nobility leaving on a Grand Tour. We may as well have steamer trunks, and elephants meeting us at the port to “convey our necessities.”

One of the ongoing discussions regarding our packing has to do specifically with traveling over Christmas. We had decided on the occasion of our first trip to France that parent gifts to children would be limited to two items per kid. (Santa brings one per kid– he’s managed to find us each year so far.) Lana and I decided to forgo formal present giving, and we recieve any presents from the kids before we leave. However, now that the kids are old enough to give each other presents (and THINK about giving each other presents), we’re up to something like 24 presents total that need to be packed & wrapped; this year, we’re running the risk and traveling with pre-wrapped presents, hoping that if any need to be unwrapped in the name of security, we’ve packed enough back-up paper to re-wrap once arrived. It’s a lot of poundage, though. The experience of travel is big gift by itself… but, if we still want to have some kind of exchange as part of Christmas, we either need to keep packing & carrying, OR decide to make our travel happen AFTER Christmas morning.

The clock tells me that the arrival of the van is imminent; next post from Barcelona!